Product Description

A brilliantly entertaining and innovative history of the ancient Athenians' consuming passions for food, wine and sex. Sex, shopping and fish-madness, Athenian style. This fascinating book reveals that the ancient Athenians were supreme hedonists. Their society was driven by an insatiable lust for culinary delights -- especially fish -- fine wine and pleasures of the flesh. Indeed, great fortunes were squandered and politicians' careers ruined through ritual drinking at the symposium, or the wooing of highly-coveted, costly prostitutes. James Davidson brings an incisive eye and an urbane wit to this refreshingly accessible and different history of the people who invented Europe, democracy and art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134035 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'Davidson is the best thing to happen to ancient history writing for decades' Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday 'There are pleasures and authors who lie dormant for a century or more until a new kind of vividness, a super-freshness descends on them. James Davidson has that skill.' Spectator 'If little boys are still being made to learn dead languages, and expected to enjoy them, I hope their Greek master reads Davidson's fascinating and witty book, and tells them the best stories from it. This certainly ought to wake them up at the back of the class.' Sunday Times

About the Author
James Davidson lectures in ancient history and the classical languages at the University of Warwick. He was previously a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.

Customer Reviews

A review and analysis of all the juicier aspects of Athens
As a classics undergraduate, I understand the importance of a classics book which grabs and maintains interest from the beginning. The author, James Davidson, appears to have the ability to write such a book as this in spades. Admittedly, Davidson is not hindered by the subject matter, which mainly centres upon sex and alcohol, as well as other forms of depravity. However, this is not to say that it is as easy to read as a bodice-ripper. Although it is very entertaining, this is not an easy read and a good deal of concentration has to be dedicated to it. If you have any interest in classics or ancient history, then this book is a must.

Excellent for both the amateur and professional classicist
Davidson, in this fascinating, elegantly written, amusing and yet academically-rigorous book, gives the perfect object lesson in how to write for both the professional classicist and the amateur historian without ever losing credibility or talking down to his audience. Whatever your interest, he surveys fifth century Athens and takes you from the aristocratic male environment of the symposium, to the back lanes of the city via pottery shops, food stalls and brothels. Exposing the Athenian discourse on appetite in all its variety, he tackles the perennially- fascinating subjects of food, drink and sex - and succeeds in making us feel that the classical Athenians are both just like us and yet simultaneously utterly alien.

Forget Rubicon, Persian Fire and all the other 'pseudo-history books' - this is the real thing and an excellent read.

Every dog has four thoughts, one for each paw: food, food, sex and food
The above quote comes from Katharine Whitehorn's iconic Cooking in a Bedsitter, but it could be applied to this excellent book, the best thing I've ever read on the ancient world. It is witty, informative and scholarly, with never a dull moment. And not least, he explodes the (frankly absurd) myth that heterosex in ancient Greece was solely for procreation. As Davidson himself is gay, his stressing of this point is all the more credible and creditable.